Shakhtar 2-0 Braga: Braga beaten by Rat attacks

Mircea Lucescu used his usual 4-2-3-1 formation, in a Shakhtar side unchanged from their previous Champions League game, a 0-3 win in Belgrade.

Domingos Paciencia also chose a 4-2-3-1 shape, with Luis Aguiar high up the pitch, in the centre of a fluid front four that received support from Leandro Salino.

The first thing to consider here was the mentality of the two sides. In an incredibly tight group, both sides’ strategy would depend upon the progress of the Arsenal v Partizan game.

Therefore, both spent the first half playing very conservative football, settling for 0-0 at half-time and making sure they were still in the game in the second half. The only chance of the first half came after a Braga defender slipped, and Willian blasted over the bar.

Srna moves forward

Still, there was some level of tactical interest, mainly from the home side. Possessing one of the most attack-minded right-backs in the competition in Darijo Srna, they altered their shape when in possession to make sure he was free to go forward, despite the presence of Paulo Cesar on that flank.

The change in shape was quite clever. First, Douglas Costa would drift in from the right to create space for Srna on the overlap – nothing strange about that. What gave Srna license to get forward, however, was the fact that Oleksiy Gai would come across to the right side of the pitch, laving Taras Stepanenko as the sole holding player. Srna then acted as a right-winger and changed the formation to 4-1-4-1 when in possession. If Shakhtar lost the ball, Gai would simply become the right-back, so his side still had a back four with one holding player ahead.

Braga were also fluid, although in a more standard way for a 4-2-3-1 – with the front four players very flexible. In particular, Matheus came out to the flank and either Cesar or Alan would move inside to become the frontman. They also shifted to become a 4-1-4-1 with the ball, as Salino pushed forward and Vandinho remained disciplined, taking care of Jadson.

Second half

Things opened out in the second half – Salino became even more attack-minded as Braga searched for a goal. Pacienca eventually went 4-4-2 (or 4-1-3-2) with the introduction of Lima to play upfront and Hugo Viana as a central playmaker. Lucescu simply wanted a different attacking threat, and so swapped Costa for Alex Teixeira, with Willian moving to the right.

Braga fouls

Part of Braga’s problem in trying to get back into the game was their tendency to concede fouls, which broke up the play and made things bitty.

In fact, Braga conceded more free-kicks in the group stage than any other side in this competition, 148. (Incidentally, Shakhtar were fouled more than any other side, 144.)

Goals

The breakthrough eventually came when Shakhtar got their left-back forward. Razvan Rat had attacked less than Srna throughout the game, but was key in both goals. First, he drilled a shot into the far corner from 25 yards, and then provided a pinpoint cross for Luiz Adriano to make it two soon after.

To a large extent, Shakhtar were better once Braga changed shape – they then had a numerical disadvantage in midfield but more importantly as Braga attacked, Shakhtar had space to break into.

Conclusion

Shakhtar were impressive here – they possess good technical players throughout the side and are tactically intelligent, making the best use of their most talented individuals, particularly Srna.

The outcome of this game was heavily influenced by circumstances – as an opening day fixture Braga wouldn’t have attacked and a 0-0 would have been likely, but Shakhtar showed more attacking quality and took Braga by surprise by working the left flank for the goals, rather than the right they had otherwise focused their passing down.

11 Responses to “ Shakhtar 2-0 Braga: Braga beaten by Rat attacks ”

jph100 on December 9, 2010 at 1:04 am

How many shaktar games have you had to watch before you could put a “rat attacks” headline in?

Nice work as always

Isaac on December 9, 2010 at 1:36 am

Wow, the way Shaktar used their defensive midfielder there was VERY clever indeed. That could actually be a way of using a versatile player like John O’Shea to his full-extent. Moreover, if they allow the defensive midfielder drifting wide to get forward, that could REALLY do a number on the opposing team’s marking.

This could be an interesting way of getting Dani Alves to get up the flank with Maicon as the right back. Sorry, didn’t mean to go overboard there.

Keith on December 9, 2010 at 2:10 pm

This is what Inter should have done against Bale and against Zarate. Use Zanetti as cover to Maicon against Bale and his sub’s sub (against Zarate). Zanetti is made for this role, Benitez fails once again.

Lorenzo on December 9, 2010 at 2:46 am

If I am not mistaken something similar happened last year with Maicon: when he pushed forward Zanetti would move from midfield to a right-back position. This happend both when Inter played 4-3-1-2 (forming a lopsided 4-2-1-3) and 4-2-3-1.

Shaktar seems a good side, but it is to be said that ukrainian and russian teams always appear on top form in this part of the season.

One Veron on December 9, 2010 at 8:21 pm

Off topic, but are there attributes that are good for certain positions? I’d love to see a ZM article on this.

I know I’d probably put a pacy player out wide or up front. What about a player not good on the ball but with lots of stanima e.g. Robbie Savage, is it best to play him in midfield to get tackles in or does that only ensure your midfield will give the ball away too often?

A player who’s good on the ball, but can’t really tackle or run, snould he be in midfield? I think that describes Paul Scholes well, but I was always told that midfielders often have to do the most running?

etc. etc. etc.

schooner on December 11, 2010 at 9:53 pm

In an ideal world you would have a squad full of players with both attacking and defending football intelligence, great movement, skillful passing/dribbling/shooting/tackling, heading/etc, who are also have quick acceleration, high end speed, endurance, strength and size- along with a good work ethic, manners, and team spirit.

In reality, I suppose you have certain attributes for certain systems of play. You also get at one of the fundamental questions of management: do you pragmatically build a system around the players at your disposal or do you idealistically build a squad to suit a particular system?

Without doubt there must usually be a compromise between the two extremes. It is almost as rare for a manager to not make any changes in personnel to form a squad more to his liking as it is for one to make wholesale changes. At the national level, Bielsa picked his Chilean squad to fit a system of play-leaving some good players out. Maradona also explained the absence of Zanetti and Cambiasso in this way, basically saying that there was no role for them in his style of play and thus pointless to take them along.

Perhaps the national team that can make pragmatism and idealism the same will be the best. Spain picked, probably, their best 23 players, who also happened to best fit into their style of play.

Just an example. If you inherit a squad with slow but reliable defenders, a good passer midfield but the others more workmanlike, and a few really fast attackers:

-pragmatically you will probably want to play deep and hit on the counter.
-if you idealistically want to play possession football, then you have to identify those with technical deficiencies and bring in more skillful players (through selection and/or acquisition)

johannes cruijff on December 9, 2010 at 9:50 pm

Srna is good full back and has good croses. Its wise to use him in more offensive manner.